This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on Trump’s handling of costs and energy issues, new polling on energy efficiency, and new polling about extreme weather and its impacts on the home insurance market.

The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credit (25C) and the Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit (25D) can wipe out past and future energy price inflation. In 2023 alone, these tax credits helped more than 3.4 million American households — across every state — invest in energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, water heaters, and HVAC equipment, and in geothermal, solar, and battery installations. New analysis from Rewiring America shows that by installing technologies supported by 25C and 25D, American households could effectively roll back the clock on their energy costs. Just using one of those tax breaks could help a household pay the equivalent of 2020 prices today. These savings would only continue into the future, protecting families against price increases. Without efficiency upgrades, the average American household is paying $3,080 per year for energy — 32 percent more than in 2020. But the average home that leverages 25C can cut up to $990 from their annual energy costs, completely wiping out the last four years of energy price spikes. The average home that leverages both 25C and 25D can cut their annual energy bills by more than 70 percent, or $2,240 per year.

Voters say that climate change is contributing to the rise in home insurance costs. While voters have overwhelmingly positive attitudes about clean energy companies, oil and gas companies are underwater. 65% of voters have favorable attitudes about the clean energy industry, compared to just 21% who feel unfavorably about it. 72% of voters say that the increase in climate change-fueled extreme weather events is at least “somewhat” responsible for recent changes in the home insurance sector, including spikes in home insurance rates and insurance companies leaving state insurance markets. Around two-thirds of voters (67%), including majorities of Democrats (82%), independents (61%), and Republicans (56%), say that they are at least “somewhat” concerned about future increases in the frequency of extreme weather events. Additionally, nearly four in five voters (78%) – including large majorities of Democrats (81%), independents (75%), and Republicans (76%) – are at least “somewhat” concerned about future increases in the price of property insurance.

Voters are motivated to take advantage of energy efficiency tax credits and rebates, as they believe that energy efficiency upgrades would lower their utility bills and raise their home values but are concerned about the upfront costs. 81% of voters support the U.S. encouraging energy efficiency improvements such as LED light bulbs, Energy Star-rated appliances, new insulation, and windows. 71% of voters, including 58% of Republicans, support energy efficiency tax credits after reading a brief description of the tax credits that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act. 64% of voters believe that installing energy-efficient appliances and making energy efficiency upgrades would decrease their utility bills. 57% of voters believe that installing energy-efficient appliances and making energy efficiency upgrades would increase their home’s property value. 71% of voters support the U.S. encouraging renewable energy investments, such as solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal.

Across all 48 contiguous U.S. states, IRA repeal would create significant economic damage, including lost jobs, lost GDP, and higher consumer costs. This analysis finds IRA repeal will: increase cumulative household energy costs by $32 billion from 2025-2035; cost America nearly 790,000 jobs in 2030 and more than 700,000 jobs in 2035; decrease GDP more than $160 billion in 2030 and nearly $190 billion in 2035; and increase climate pollution more than 530 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2035, equal to adding 116 million cars to the road. Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia stand out as the biggest losers from IRA repeal due to their poor combination of lost jobs and increased household energy costs. To download a specific state’s fact sheet, click that state’s name on this resource’s map.

Large majorities of voters across party lines agree that the federal government should invest in American EV manufacturing jobs, expand EV charging infrastructure, and help make EVs more affordable. 85% of voters say that the federal government should increase the number and reliability of public electric vehicle charging stations. 85% of voters say that the federal government should make electric vehicles more affordable for average Americans and working families. 80% of voters say that the federal government should make investments that create electric vehicle manufacturing jobs in the U.S. 72% of voters say that the federal government should keep the $7,500 tax break for Americans who buy an electric vehicle.

In this episode, David Roberts is joined by Albert Gore to discuss the fate of the electric-vehicle tax credits under the Trump administration. Gore explains how the consumer credit provides a demand-side signal to complement the supply-side manufacturing credits, and why eliminating either would primarily benefit Chinese manufacturers.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about federal funding cuts, including to national parks and forests, and new polling about carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

The Public Environmental Data Partners are committed to preserving and providing public access to federal environmental data. They are a volunteer coalition of several environmental, justice, and policy organizations, researchers across several universities, archivists, and students who rely on federal datasets and tools to support critical research, advocacy, policy, and litigation work. To gather insights on what data to preserve, they reached out to our networks, which consist largely of environmental justice groups and networks, state and local government climate offices, and academic researchers. They compiled a large list of federal databases and tools, and prioritized them based on their relative impact, their confidence that we could archive them, and the relative effort it would take to obtain and archive them. Examples include: access to FEMA’s Future Risk Index, EPA EJAM, and more.

This map shows locations of electric vehicle charging stations around the U.S.